NEWS - Friday, October 22, 2004
Xbox Flying Off The Shelves In Europe
Xbox®, the future generation video game system from Microsoft, today announced red hot sales over the past few weeks. Xbox enjoyed 53% market share among consoles in the UK last week, up 49% from the previous week[1], whilst turning in strong performances across Europe too. Xbox, which retails at an estimated street price of €149.99/£99.99, has seen a growth of sales in recent weeks helped by a wealth of great value bundles, an exciting Christmas games line up throughout Europe and excellent value for customers. It is also bolstered by its increasingly popular online gaming service, Xbox® LiveTM – which now has more than one million members world-wide. "This is fantastic news for Xbox – demonstrating its ever-strengthening position in the video game console market," said Michel Cassius, senior director, Xbox Platform and Marketing. "We have some fantastic games on the way – the innovative Fable, the debut of Electronic Arts’ games on Xbox Live such as EA SPORTSTM FIFA® Football 2005, Pro Evolution Soccer 4 – also on Xbox Live - and of course the hottest game this Christmas on any platform, Halo 2. Any gamer confused about which console to buy this Christmas should get to the stores quickly". Xbox continues to go from strength to strength, with cumulative worldwide shipments of 15.5 million consoles since launch and a worldwide shipment goal of more than 20 million units by the end of June 2005. The groundbreaking Xbox Live service is expected to expand to an excess of 1.5 million members by the end of June 2005, representing 50%+ growth. Xbox Live is the evolving, dynamic gaming service that continues to bring people together to share experiences, from social game play to healthy competition. Players in 24 countries around the world have spent more than 160 million hours (or 20,000 years) playing Xbox Live on popular games like Project Gotham Racing® 2.Source: http://www.gamesindustry.biz
